PAX sapiens is pleased to announce that Dr. Bates Gill is joining the organization as the Senior Fellow for Nuclear Governance. Dr. Gill will support PAX sapiens‘ work to prevent the use of nuclear weapons through understanding the governance of nuclear weapons and how to strengthen policy, institutions, and other governance avenues to reduce the risk of nuclear weapons use.
PAX sapiens’ Chief Operating Officer, Conor Seyle, said, “PAX sapiens’ work to reduce catastrophic risk, including nuclear risk, is focused on fostering practical and constructive impact through the creation of collaborative governance systems. We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Gill to support this work, bringing to bear his extensive, international experience in policy, research, and creation of institutions.”
“I am honored and excited to join PAX sapiens and contribute to its critically important mission,” Dr. Gill shared. “I look forward to working with colleagues at PAX sapiens and partners around the world to shed new light on the global state of nuclear weapons governance.”
The PAX sapiens nuclear risk reduction focus is led globally by the Open Nuclear Network program, with open-source research, analytical foresight and engagement of impact-capable networks, specifically centered on Euro-Atlantic and Trans-Pacific regions.
Dr. Gill’s appointment as Senior Fellow for Nuclear Governance creates additional approaches to nuclear risk reduction in PAX’s growing body of work, and he joins Jon Wolfsthal, Fellow for U.S. Nuclear Policy.
About Dr. Bates Gill, PAX sapiens Senior Fellow for Nuclear Governance
Dr. Bates Gill has a 30-year global career as an institution-builder, policy advisor, and scholar, with a particular focus on China and Indo-Pacific affairs. He is also a Senior Fellow with the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, a Senior Fellow for Asian Security with the National Bureau of Asian Research, and an Honorary Professor at Macquarie University in Australia.
Previously, he was the inaugural Executive Director of the Asia Society Center for China Analysis, Head of Department and Professor of Asia-Pacific Security Studies with the Department of Security Studies at Macquarie University, the Chief Executive Officer of the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney and Director and chief executive of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Before joining SIPRI, Dr. Gill held the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C and served as a Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies and inaugural Director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution. He directed East Asia programs at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute and held the Fei Yiming Chair in Comparative Politics at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Chinese and American Studies, Nanjing, China.
Dr. Gill has a long record of research and publication, resulting in more than 200 publications and research-related travel to more than 60 countries. He has consulted for corporations, government agencies, and philanthropic organizations, lectured widely and provided U.S. Congressional and other parliamentary testimony related to Asian and global affairs, and made more than 700 appearances in print, broadcast and digital media.
He is the author, co-author, or co-editor of 12 books, including Daring to Struggle: China’s Global Ambitions under Xi Jinping (Oxford University Press, 2022; re-released in paperback in 2025), China Matters: Getting it Right for Australia (Black Inc., 2017), Governing the Bomb: Civilian Control and Democratic Accountability of Nuclear Weapons (Oxford University Press, 2010), Asia’s New Multilateralism (Columbia University Press, 2009), Rising Star: China’s New Security Diplomacy (Brookings, 2007; revised edition 2010; republished in Japanese 2014) and China: The Balance Sheet: What the World Needs to Know Now About the Emerging Superpower (Public Affairs, 2006).
His work appears in such journals as Foreign Affairs, Survival, National Interest, China Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary China, Current History, and New England Journal of Medicine, and in such newspapers as Le Monde, International Herald Tribune, New York Times, Financial Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Australian Financial Review, and The Australian.
Among his other professional affiliations, Dr. Gill serves on the Board of Governors of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS, Singapore), is a member of the International Council of Advisors for the Shanghai Institutes of International Studies and sits on the Board of Advisors of the National Bureau of Asian Research.
Dr. Gill received his Ph.D. in Foreign Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson Department of Government and Foreign Affairs, University of Virginia, USA. A U.S. citizen, he speaks, reads, and writes in Chinese, English, and French.
